Thursday, July 22, 2010

Whoah...get back, Jack! Lookie what an anonymous Mutant Sounds fan just decided to gift us all with! Yes, this really is the first Wet Taxis tape, one of the most storied and, 'til now, completely vanished early artifacts of the Aussie post punk/post industrial/post everything cultural uprising of the late 70's/early 80's. Why so storied? Because this 50 copy tape features some of the earliest Severed Heads-related material extant, being the original home for future band member Garry Bradbury, working here alongside brothers Tim and Simon Knuckey (the latter of whom played guest guitar on several Severed Heads cuts) and with a guest turn from Severed Heads founder Tom Ellard. The Taxis started life under the moniker Sydney Quads and apparently issued a hand painted artist record ala Milan Kniszac during their brief existence before altering their moniker to Wet Taxis. These folks would have several notable cuts featured on legendary Terse Tapes comps like Mysterious Kitchens and One Stop Shopping circa this period (both featured elsewhere on MS), though they'd latterly gain much more renown as a garage psych outfit some years down the road under the guidance of one Louis Tillet. Taxidermy though is another story entirely, being comprised of a rudely spliced grab bag of live and studio tracks, sound bites and noise. Australia's underground of this era was host to several virulent strains of post punk/synth punk sturm und drang and Wet Taxis' cantankerous early racket places Taxidermy in parity with crucial work by the likes of Primitive Calculators and The Slugfuckers. When the post punk clatter is to the fore, this also calls to mind some of the more baleful exemplars of UK post punk like Metabolist or or the pre-Whitehouse tactics of Come, while the more electronically oriented passages vary between blearily blooping cassette culture claustrophobia ala the Storm Bugs and others that clearly presage the queasily distressed avant electropop churn of early Severed Heads circa Earbitten and Clean. Crucial stuff!

Thanks for posting this! I love Mutant Sounds.By the way, Tom Ellard was not a founding member, as Severed Heads originally began as a duo (Richard Fielding and Andrew Wright). After Ellard joined the other two left, and he became the sole member for a while.

thanks a lot for this great post, really enjoy it... and by the way as we're already in australia do you have any releases from john watermann's side projects like radio mull, spinal machine and total disease to share?

p.s. i'm still waiting for a re_up of shindii shimae tape and from what i read the mmot only claimed it not be shared on a spyware hosting site like mediafire so just share it at rapidshare or megaupload and all is fine ;o)

hi anonymous, i think it is accurate to describe ellard as a founding member of severed heads as mr and mrs no smoking sign did not become severed heads until after ellard joined up with wright and fielding. but i may be wrong - i wasn't there.

There's no need for backstory or explanation about this seminal Krautrock crew in these quarters, I expect. This four disc boot is a var...

VISITORS

MY WANTS LIST

BLISS 91 comp.tape

NOTRE DAME tapes

TANT QU’IL Y AURA DU TANGO tape

DISCO TOTEM

HOW TO BECOME A MILLIONAIRE? comp.tape

PRIVATE SOUNDS comp. tape

QFVDLO ? n° 8 comp. tape

PASSIONS ORGANIQUES comp. tapes

ATTENTION A MARIANNE T. comp. tape

BLOC OPERATOIRE compilation tape

NOMUZIC-tapes(any)

MITCH RUSHTON-tapes(any)

PENGA-tapes (any)

DARK ENIGMA-CLAUSTROPHOBIA tape

DITTO-TEXAS ELECTRIC tape

STEVE HARTWELL-anything

DINO DIMURO-anything

VIKTIMIZED KARCASS-anything

RANCID POULTRY-anything

CARL HOWARD-anything

L.G. MAIR-anything

KEN CLINGER-tapes(any)

LARRY MONDELLO BAND-tapes(any)

CHUCK VAN ZYL-CALLISTO,any tapes

ICEPLANTS tapes (any)

Northampton Under Glass compilation tape

Northumbrian compilation tape

Funeral Danceparty tapes

Bunny Lakers LP(complete)+++

As for the time being i'm searching for resource material i would appreciate any scans or photocopies of late 70's/early 80s fanzines on experimental/industrial/punk/DIY stuff.Especially i would appreciate photocopied issues of:AURA,FACE OUT,FOOLS MATE(******) NEWSTYLE(esp.Nr 10)ATEM magazine,AUDION magazine,Grohinga Well(or something like that,Belgian magazine).If you can provide any of this stuff please contact me.